The Motivational Gardener at Large

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About The Personal Garden Coach

Available now at your favorite bookseller!

THE PERSONAL GARDEN COACH (Christina Salwitz) is a horticultural guidance counselor, and Horticultural Photojournalist in the Fairwood neighborhood of Renton, Washington.

Christina provides every level of gardener with a fresh and objective perspective on their special needs. By focusing on organic methods, improving soil quality, pruning technique and seasonal focus, Christina translates “garden speak” into a language that gets people of all ages excited about achieving their gardening dreams!

Christina has a fun, dynamic and enthusiastic approach to teaching. She has a singular way of connecting to clients and students to make them feel like they can do anything! Her unique style is crafted through leading numerous college courses, seminars for garden clubs, and radio shows.

She has appeared in, written for and provided photos to magazines and books such as Better Homes and Gardens, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Green Profit, Container Gardening, Birds & Blooms, Oklahoma Gardener, Grocery Gardening, The Edible Front Yard, Lawn Gone, and more coming soon. 🙂

Experienced in world-class nurseries as a buyer and merchandiser for the more than twenty years, Christina has heard it all! Specializing in teaching adult gardeners, experienced or not, in how to become a confident gardener. With a special focus on saving each client MONEY, TIME and LABOR, she has become foremost in gardening education for many years.

Specialties:

Christina Salwitz is a vibrant, lively container designer, public speaker and horticultural photojournalist. Her containers designs are regularly featured in magazines across the country. Christina speaks at leading Industry events such as the Ohio Floriculture Association convention and travels all over the country speaking at events for nurseries and growers.
As a teacher, garden designer, demonstrator for tips and techniques, she is also an expert in organic gardening. With in-depth horticultural industry knowledge, marketing and merchandising expertise and successful track record in increasing business income by significant percentages.

Hi Cathy,
I would be happy to Coach you online. No book, yet… 🙂 I need to get a bit more disciplined at my blog posts before I can tackle that project. But, it’s all running around in my head!
Thanks for your lovely comment and I look forward to chatting with you more.
Christina

I’m the president of DashPoint Garden Club in BrownsPoint,WA.
We’re putting together our program speakers for 2010-11.I would love to have you speak to our group. Are you available? and what is your fee?

Hi Christina!
I’m a good friend of Karen Kidwell’s and she has been raving about you! (In fact, I was with Karen when she called you from Flower World a couple weeks ago to ask you about purchasing a specific Evergreen tree!)

A couple of questions… My husband and I have a large shady backyard in Mill Creek and we’re stumped regarding shade loving plants to place under fir trees. Do you drive as far north as Mill Creek to consult? It would be great to get your input before we spend a lot of money on plants that won’t grow in this area. (been there!)

Also, my sister and I started a women’s organization called The Women’s Connection and I would love to promote your business, free of charge. We’re emailing our Spring Newsletter this week, would you like me to mention your name and website? Karen actually wrote an article for our Newsletter this time so you would be in good company!

We saw your ad in the Newcastle News and want to know if you can help us.

We have a third of an acre in Newcastle and we did quite a bit of landscape work 10 years or so ago and have since slowly been improving it. We do all of our own yard work but now we want to do a lot less of it while still maintaining an attractive home. Specifically we want to do: less weeding, less watering and make the moles go away. Which trees, shrubs and ground covers should we keep, propagate, prune or remove? What new ones should we add? Fall is coming and we’d like to have a plan in place in the next month or so.

Hi Blaine,
I would be honored to meet with you and help you meet your low maintenance gardening goals! I happen to work at the little nursery in Newcastle. Feel free to e-mail me to schedule a time at PersonalGardenCoach@Comcast.net, I will get you my cell phone number and we can connect to schedule a time for you ASAP.
Thanks!
Christina

Hi! I was at the Outdoor Living Extravaganza and your talk answered the questions that I had about my own garden. Unfortunately, my mid-40’s brain can’t remember what my notes mean. When you gave a proportion of evergreen plants to deciduous in a garden, what was it? I thought it was 1/3 to 2/3, but can’t remember which way.. If it is 2/3 deciduous, that seems like too many bare branches…Please help.
I am considering a trip from Lake Stevens to Newcastle to visit in person and to select some things.

hi christina! i think you have the most beautiful yard and finally found something online with a picture that is exactly what i want. i am needing someone to help me with my yard, ASAP! i was attempting to plant my pots on my front porch and proceeded to rip out my whole yard. seriously, i went a little overboard. i moved to seattle from texas and know NOTHING about this zone. i am very interested in talking with you and look forward to hearing from you.

Hi Stacy,
It sounds like you have some great enthusiasm for gardening- I love it! Please feel free to contact me via my e-mail address to discuss your goals further and schedule a time to get started!PersonalGardenCoach@Comcast.net

Love the picture – y wish I could do that. Previously lived in Sumner WA (love the PNW) and moved to Houston about four years ago. Gardening is not a lot of fun here – clay soil and hot, humid weather. Hope to see you at Plants for all Seasons.

Hi Christina – I am looking for a gardening coach. I live in Normandy Park, have a 11,000 square foot corner lot and I’m overwhelmed. I have planted and pulled out more plants than are available at Furneys. argh. I would love some help. I contacted Robin Haglund, garenmentors.com and she suggested your name. Please advise if you are interested and available. Look forward to hearing from you.

I’m the newsletter for a group of Master Gardeners in Northwest Arkansas. I would like to use some of your photos and information for small sections of our newsletter. When I use information from others, I always cite their web addresses. Would this be acceptable to you?
Thanks – in advance
abbey

Stumbling upon one of your stunning potted arrangements at a nursery i was curious as to who was responsible. after seeing your work, i found myself returning to my yard with a sense of vigor and inspiration. so happy to meet such a talented garden enthusiast. when i shared my inspiration with my husband, he actually told me he also consults with you for his professional landscape work. thank you for gifting the world with your talent!

I saw your contribution to the March issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I am interested in finding a container such as the one that was featured on page 68. Can you help me find a source in the Los Angeles area?

HI Jan,
I am so sorry, but just now seeing this note!
Unfortunately that pot was a lonely orphan that I found at my local home store. It was an end of the season close out and I have never seen another like it anywhere. Wishing I could give you leads!
Best,
Christina

I need a gardening coach!! Can you help me find one in my area? You are visiting Ames, IA which is how I heard of you, but it looks like you are not from here. I would love it if you could connect me to someone local who could save me (and my garden/disaster) from myself.

Hi Dolores,
Thanks for reaching out!
I live in Fairwood too, I’d love to help you out with your landscape goals. This is exactly the kinds of projects I help people with all over. Please email me at PersonalGardenCoach@comcast.net. I use email for all of my client tracking and schdeduling, from there I will send you my FAQ sheet.
Looking forward to meeting you.
Best,
Christina

Help! I am in California and cannot find a lavender/blue pot combination as you show on Pinterest.
Could you be so kind as to give me a lead as to where I can get it out here. As much as I would like to visit you in Virginia, it would make the pot quite expensive!
Many thanks,
Sue

Hi Susan,
I’m in Seattle, the capital of pottery bliss as for all intents and purposes we’re right across the street from Asia, where most pottery comes from!
This is a very tough one. I don’t know who the original vendor was on that one as I bought it on closeout at a local home store. No one wanted the weird color, but I did! Since the magazine cover, I have had people from across the country offer big money for it.
I dearly wish I could give you a referral for where it came from. I have been trying to figure it out myself for years now. My hunch is that it is a discontinued color/style.
You can try contacting some of your local pottery wholesalers with the photo of it and see if they can help you track down a source or maybe a close style. If you figure it out, I’ll be in your debt! 🙂
Sorry, wish I could be of more hlep!
Best,
Christina

Hi, I love how you’ve used stock tanks for your veggies. It looks as though you’ve put them up on something to create a bit of airspace underneath. Is this correct? What did you use? Did you drill holes in the bottom of the tanks as well?

Hi Sheri,
Thanks! Yes, I put them on two pressure treated 2×4’s to help keep them up off the gravel and to help promote drainage. I SHOULD have drilled extra holes, but at the time I got them, I was having my whole landscape re-done and the guys had already filled them 1/2 way with topsoil, so it was too late. They still have bog drain holes to one side at the bottom, I would have just liked more.
The air gap is also to make it easy to get slug bait around the bottom where the slugs like to hide.
Best,
Christina